As promised, I’m sending some link love back to the most recent blogger who entered our Romantic Ideas Link Contest:
There’s still time to enter the Romantic Ideas Link Contest if you’re an RSS subscriber or a blogger. It’s quick, easy, and a great chance to win some cool free stuff . . . why not enter today?
The word “romance” is both powerful and personal, and inspires unique memories, reactions and emotions in every individual who hears it. It defines a quality of life, a type of story, a class of languages, a kind of art and music, and exciting and mysterious qualities that are difficult to define.
Since Romance Tracker’s mission is to deliver fresh romantic ideas to our readers, we’ve dedicated a series of posts to the all-important question: what exactly is romance, and what does the word “romantic” mean?
Last week we talked about the Romantic Languages. Today we’re going to discover the genre of literary romance, also known as chivalric romance, which was a type of writing common in the middle ages and Renaissance periods. Romance literature (not the popular romance novels of today) generally describes writing that was widely read during these periods by the masses in the common languages of Spanish, Portuguese, Spanish, English and German, as opposed to more highbrow Latin literature.
It was common in medieval romance literature to see a brave, chivalrous knight doing battle with fantastic magical monsters, usually as part of a quest to save a fair maiden. Still, these medieval romance stories didn’t really have romantic themes, and didn’t dwell much on actual relationships between the knight in question and the maiden he rescued. Instead, the stories tended to focus on adventure and heroism.
In these early examples of literary romance, the heroes often had amazing magical powers themselves that they used to defeat their foes. These abilities and magical qualities were reflective of the fairy tales and legends of the time, but they became less and less prevalent in romance stories as the genre advanced. Eventually, the knights and heroes were written as characters who didn’t have magical powers themselves, but who did battle with magical enemies.
As the medieval period gave way to the Renaissance period, the popularity of such romance masterpieces as Le Mort d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory inspired many writers to try to imitate with works of their own. With the coming of such comedic farces as Don Quixote, though, the medieval concept of romance started to get a tongue-in-cheek treatment from writers.
By the 1600’s, the fantastic romance literature of knights, maidens and chivalry began to lose its popularity with the masses, and many literary authorities of the time started to look at the romance genre as poor literature. But although the genre eventually faded, great romance literature still inspires the style of literary artists to this day.
The following is a Romance Tracker sponsored post.
Because Romance Tracker is visited by so many people every day looking for ideas on how to add romance and love to their lives, we get a lot of requests to recommend or review Internet dating sites to our readers. I’m usually skeptical to plug any dating sites, because often the prerequisite to join and search for your special someone is giving up your credit card number and handing over a large fee. And the impersonal, slicked-up feel of most dating sites just doesn’t seem to jive with a genuine search for the romantic partner of your dreams.
That’s why I was so impressed with Pricelesspartner.com, a new dating service currently in Beta version that really distinguishes itself from the gazillion other paid dating sites. While other sites require your credit card number before they allow you to make contact with an interesting-looking person, Pricelesspartner doesn’t require you to pay a single cent.
That’s right: you get absolutely free access to cool stuff like compatibility calculators, zipcode searches, direct webcam chats between members, and secure mailing systems just for signing up with Pricelesspartner. And in the age of having to give up your credit card number for just about everything you do online, that’s a really refreshing detour from the norm for anyone who is searching for that special someone.
So, what was the inspiration for Pricelesspartner? Its owner, Glen, is a cool guy who got fed up with trying to meet people online and getting squeezed for his credit card number before he could get access to services. And on the sites that did promote themselves as “free,” the impersonal, automated feeling ended up being a real bummer. You might know what it’s like to get fake emails from nonexistent “members” pushing you to sign up for paid features on “free” dating sites.
Well Glen is an online producer who has been in the Internet business for years, and he decided to stop hoping for a better Internet dating option . . . and create one himself! From the ground up, everything on Pricelesspartner.com is geared toward one goal: to add warmth and a sense of family to the online dating experience. No robot responses, no credit card numbers required for access . . . just a quality grass-roots community that will help you find that special someone.
Pricelesspartner is still in the Beta version, and as Glen fine-tunes things he’s more than happy to listen to your suggestions for improving the site and making it more convenient for users. Just take part in the Pricelesspartner forums and you can play a part in making the site even more responsive and user-friendly.
So if you’ve ever thought of joining an Internet dating site, why give up your credit card number and pay a fee for services that you can get absolutely free somewhere else? Joining the Pricelesspartner community may be the perfect way for you to find romance . . . without paying a cent!
For those of us who are addicted to blogging (who, me?) the symptoms of l’amour de blog are all too familiar. The lump in the throat and twinkle in the eye when we gaze at a newly-uploaded banner image; the sinking feeling when we realize that the day’s events will keep us from checking our stats for hours; the deep sense of pride when months of hard work and dedication translate into a modest jump in Technorati rank.
You unfortunate masses who’ve never experienced a deep, meaningful relationship with a blog have missed out on an achingly poignant truth: blogging is a lot like being in love. In fact, for thousands of dateless programming junkies across the globe (don’t look at me!), the blogosphere is the closest they’ve ever actually gotten to going steady.
So if you’re a blogger, check out the following list of the top three reasons why blogging is like being in love . . . and look closely for any familiar symptoms. If this post sounds all too familiar, your relationship with your blog may have already gone far beyond the platonic . . . and entered into the mysterious, intoxicating world of l’amour de blog.
1. In Your Eyes, Your Blog is Flawless
They say that love is blind, and nothing gives that old adage more weight than your infatuation with your blog. You’ve spent endless hours making sure everything on your blog is just so: the banner image, the buttons, the sidebar, the links. Heck, you even forced yourself to learn HTML just so you could figure out how to make the color of your anchor text match your blog’s overall scheme.
Yup, to you, your blog is beautiful . . . and that can be a good thing. But not always, buster. If you let the stars in your eyes make you blind to serious aesthetic problems on your site, you’re going to end up losing visitors. That’s why you shouldn’t always trust your own judgement when deciding what works best on your blog.
Just as you do when you start dating a new person, ask people whose opinion you respect what they think. Does your blog really look as good as you think, or are there changes you could enact to make it more friendly and functional?
2. Every Moment Away From Your Blog is Like an Eternity
The evenings and lunch breaks you spend with your blog seem to go by all too quickly, and when it’s time to leave the computer and tend to other things your stomach churns with a painful longing. You daydream about your blog when you can’t be in its comfortable embrace: about the next post you’re going to write, about rearranging the widgets on your sidebar, about getting that next big link.
Missing your blog when you can’t be near it is understandable, but remember one thing: time away from the one you love is necessary for your own sanity. Spend too much time with your blog, and your relationship will burn out and crash before the next Page Rank update.
So force yourself to spend time away from your blog and do things that normal people do. You know: go to work, play with the kids, get some exercize. Your blog—and the living, breathing human beings in your life—will thank you for it.
3. The More You Put Into Your Blog, the More You Get Back
Just like a romantic relationship, the more time and effort you expend improving your blog, the more recognition and approval you’ll get. Also like a romantic relationship, a large percentage of them end up failing because the participants just don’t want to commit to the amount of work it takes to really create something special.
The early months of your blogging relationship will sometimes feel like all work and no reward, but in reality you’re making a gradual investment that might not show returns until much further down the road. So don’t reach for the easy way out and ”divorce” your blog when things start to get tough. Remind yourself of why you fell in love with it in the first place, force yourself to write a few more posts, and weather the storm.
Remember: It’s the bloggers who are truly committed to posting, and who don’t let the rough patches get to them, who eventually find great success and happiness in the blogosphere. In the not-too-distant future, when you and your blog are celebrating your first anniversary together, you’ll be thankful that you stuck it out.
By the way, if you liked this post, you’d probably like 10 Reasons Why Blogging is Like Dating even more!
I normally focus on old-fashioned romantic ideas here on Romance Tracker and generally avoid topics having to do with sex or seduction . . . not so much because I’m uncomfortable with those topics, but because there are so many sites out there dealing with physical love that there’s really no possibility for originality. But while the word “seduction” usually has a negative connotation for people looking to add romance to their lives, is it possible for the art of seduction to be romantic if used correctly?
I believe the answer to that question can, in some cases, be yes . . . and a post I read on a site called Seduction Tutor, which offers readers daily seduction tips, helped convince me even further that romance and seduction do sometimes go hand-in-hand.
First let me say that I don’t think there’s anything even remotely romantic about trying to seduce a person without giving any thought to seeking a romantic, monogamous relationship. While I don’t think two adults should be stopped from doing what they wish or be chastised for doing so, I also don’t think you should fool yourself into thinking that there’s anything romantic about a one-night stand.
Having said that, however, I do believe that the art of seduction can be a positive influence in a loving relationship with your wife, husband, boyfriend or girlfriend, and I don’t think the use of seduction should be limited to people who have just met. On the contrary, as Seduction Tutor often shows, you can use seduction tips in your marriage or romantic relationship to add new excitement and passion.
One post in particular made me notice the Seduction Tutor blog and opened my eyes to the possibility that romance and seduction really aren’t mutually exclusive. In the post, the author makes some great observations about romance, including the following:
To me, romance is about showing a softer side of yourself… a more thoughtful side… in a way that is meant to increase the woman’s attraction for you. Like I just mentioned, most guys either try to use romance to create attraction, or they do too many things in an attempt to “be romantic”, and the effect is lost.
And that’s a really great point: if you’re trying to be romantic just to be romantic, it isn’t true romance at at all. Romance really is a tool you should use to accentuate and focus upon an attraction that already exists . . . not to create it. Similarly, the art of seduction can be a great tool to add some more passion to an already romantic relationship . . . but be careful if you’re looking to skip romance and move right to seduction.
While Seduction Tutor may be geared toward people looking to initially attract members of the opposite sex, it can also be a great tool for loving couples looking to add more spice to their relationship. Just because you’re in a long-term, mongamous relationship doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with passion, sexiness and flirtation with each other!